It is what failed dieters have long suspected: Fat people really can't keep the weight off.
Scientists have confirmed that the majority of overweight people who try to lose weight either by cutting calories or exercising will return to their former size.
Fewer than 10 percent of the 12 million Britons who go on a diet each year succeed in losing significant amounts of weight and most of those who do put it all back on again within a year.
They followed 5,362 men and women from their birth in 1946 and 20,000 from birth in 1958, measuring their weight and blood pressure and assessing their lifestyles.
The researchers found both groups began gaining weight in the 1980s and have steadily increased in size ever since.
Dr Rebecca Hardy, the council's program leader on body size, said:"Once people become overweight, they continue relentlessly upwards. They hardly ever go back down. It is better to avoid getting fat in the first place. For men，weight goes up steadily through life. For women it starts slowly and accelerates in the mid-thirties."
Experts have suggested evolution means we are programmed to put on weight rather than lose it. Dieting can make this tendency worse as decreasing calorie intake triggers the body to go into starvation mode and reduce the amount of energy it naturally expends, making it even harder to lose weight.
But the study's findings do not mean dieting is pointless, as eating less and taking more exercise can increase fitness and lower blood pressure.



据《每日邮报》25日报道，正如减肥失败者猜测的那样，人们一旦变胖，再瘦下来的可能性就非常小。
科学家们已经确认，无论是减少热量吸收，还是进行体育运动，肥胖者终归无法变瘦。


在英国1200万的节食减肥者中，每年只有不到10%的人可以减肥成功，而其他大部分人又都在一年之内变胖了。

科学家对出生于1946年后的5362人和出生于1958年后的2万人进行了跟踪调查，并对他们的体重、血压、生活方式进行测评。
研究者们发现从上世纪80年代开始，这两组人的体重都有增加，而且从那以后，他们就一直在变胖。


人体体形委员会的项目负责人丽贝卡•哈迪博士说："人一旦开始肥胖，他们的体重就会一直增加，几乎不可能再变瘦。所以，最好在开始的时候就尽量避免变胖。男性的体重一般会稳步增加，而女性在刚开始时，体重增长速度较为缓慢，而35岁左右就开始加速增长。"


专家们认为"进化"意味着人们的体重会循序渐进的增加而不是减少。节食可能使这种趋势变得更糟，因为减少热量摄入会使人的身体处于饥饿状态，也使人正常需要消耗的能量减少了，进而使减肥变得更困难。"


但这项研究并不意味着节食就完全没有意义，节食及进行身体锻炼可以使人更健康，并且还能降低血压。

• pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
• steadily [´stedili] ad.坚定地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
• tendency [´tendənsi] n.趋势；倾向 (初中英语单词)
• amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
• energy [´enədʒi] n.活力，精力；能力 (初中英语单词)
• significant [sig´nifikənt] a.重要的；意义重大的 (高中英语单词)
• upwards [´ʌpwədz] ad.=upward (英语四级单词)
• evolution [,i:və´lu:ʃən] n.进化；发展；发育 (英语四级单词)
• starvation [stɑ:´veiʃən] n.饥饿；饿死 (英语四级单词)
• calorie [´kæləri] n.卡(热量单位) (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• fitness [fitnis] n.适合；健康 (英语六级单词)